I have been a professional psychic for 30 years — as in, it has been my full-time profession, alongside my writing ‘career’.

And I can tell you that the psychic arena stinks to high heaven of BS.

Is psychic ability a gift?

Not in the way it is commonly presented. You could say that anyone who is any good at anything is gifted. But psychic giftedness is really about being different. And being special. And being misunderstood. It is about theatre and performance. All of this truly boils my p**s. I resent being associated with this three-ring circus and I do my absolute best to distance myself from it.

As a child, I didn’t have a grandma, auntie, or neighbour who recognised my ‘gift’ and nurtured it, issuing warnings about how the muggles were going to view me with suspicion (the usual, even expected story). I had the average, dysfunctional childhood, complete with parental abandonment, rejection, and conflict. No one spoke about psychic or spiritual stuff and no one would have noticed if I was conjuring up Beelzebub himself. It was the kind of childhood that billions of souls have experienced. In other words, pretty normal for the time. Looking back, I was hyper-sensitive and I did ‘see’ some things I couldn’t explain — but I had no idea what it meant and I didn’t think to speak about it to others.

So, does that mean I was born with the ‘gift’?

I don’t look at it that way. I clearly had some natural ability that further developed over time (with a lot of practice and hard work, once I recognised it). However, I think that psychic ability has something to do with the brain — and I would love to be monitored whilst I am working… wired up to a humming machine as a scientist focuses on a screen, carefully identifying which parts of my brain are lighting up. Science should be more interested in psychic ability than it historically has been — but the drama queens and performers are getting in the way, which frustrates me. They’ve made the psychic arena a laughing stock, seriously damaging its chances of being taken seriously. Another damaging factor is that it tends to be followed by those who love the drama and hype, further encouraging the crazies who haunt social media with their antics — especially TikTok. To be fair, though, there are people who don’t view it that way and who use psychic services intelligently. I’ve had many lovely, smart clients who return, periodically, when they feel the need for insight or help with direction. But I have had clients who do not understand how it actually works (some even ‘educating’ me about my own profession), because they’ve been listening to the crazies, or they’ve fallen prey to the con artists who schmooze them and tell them what they want to hear. Unrealistic, demanding, rude, manipulative, and even threatening behaviour… it all comes with the territory. It’s a sad fact that the psychic arena can be very attractive to mentally and emotionally unstable people who feign having a better grip on life… until you discover otherwise.

The sole purpose of intuition is to provide insight and information. 

It is a tool available to all human souls. Even to the animal kingdom. There is much, documented evidence of animals possessing intuitive ability — such as a mass exodus to higher ground before a tsunami hits. Or dogs who appear to ‘know’ when their loved one is on their way home, even when they aren’t following their usual routine. Intuition provides some degree of insight into ourselves, another person, or a situation. It can give us a sneak preview of some of the possibilities, potentials, and pitfalls that lie ahead. It can provide a warning, or nudge us in a particular direction. When ‘receiving’ information about our own lives or that which affects us, that is intuition. When using our intuitive ability on another’s behalf, we are working psychically. Many people haven’t explored or developed their own intuitive capacity or don’t trust it to be anything other than imagination, which is why they consult an outside source.

I don’t volunteer what I do for a living when meeting new people. 

If asked, I tend to say, in a vague way, that I’m an intuitive life coach. I used to be more open, many years ago, but learned that it leads to conversations I can’t be bothered to have. 

I might have my ear bent for hours, listening to a detailed report on every psychic experience the other party, or a relative, has had. 

I might be on the receiving end of a cynical opinion about how all psychics do is prey on the vulnerable. Or, how it is all cold reading and anyone can do it. 

I might be asked to ‘prove’ it. 

Or be told about every psychic they have ever visited and how good/bad they were. 

Sometimes, people’s perception of me would change, often in a negative, fearful way. Or they’d become fascinated, expecting me to perform every time we met. I don’t want to be on duty all of the time and have my job define me. It isn’t the only thing I’m about.

I have only ever once, if my memory serves me well, approached a stranger in a psychic or spiritual context. 

And that was only because I was seriously alarmed about the welfare of a little girl. It was obvious that I scared her mother, but for good reason. It wasn’t a message from the ‘other side’ that alerted me — it was purely intuitive. I just knew that the child was in a bad way. She clearly wasn’t well — but it was more than that. It was an energetic darkness. I strongly felt that she was being exposed to drug taking and some dubious individuals.

I discovered that the woman had immediately gone to speak to a friend about what had just happened — and the friend happened to know me pretty well (she recognised my description). She confirmed my suspicion and understood why I was compelled to speak up. The mother wasn’t a bad person and she loved her daughter — but she was irresponsible and scattered and was exposing the child to danger and even future mental health problems.

I don’t believe that approaching a stranger with a message from a deceased loved one is appropriate, though many would disagree. 

Each to their own. We have no way of knowing a person’s mental and emotional state, and whether they would welcome our delivery or react badly to it. Just because a deceased person gets into my mind and instructs me to tell a stranger that their dead loved one wants to say hello, it doesn’t mean that I am duty-bound to comply. But that’s just my opinion. My martial arts Kyoshi was telling me about his mediumistic hairdresser, and how she went on holiday to Portugal — only to spend a whole day in a bar giving free readings. I said, “I bet she says things like ‘I work for spirit and they won’t leave me alone — they mither me wherever I go’”. He laughed and said “Yes, that’s exactly what she says! How did you know?” I said I’ve seen and heard it a thousand times before. The question is, how did those people in that bar, complete strangers, know that she worked as a psychic or medium? The only way they could have known is if she herself made it known. We can blame ‘spirit’ for being persistent nuisances, but some people crave attention and validation, and they get their hit from demonstrating their ‘gift’. It is sometimes the living who can’t leave it alone, not the dead.

I am able to switch off so do not find myself at the mercy of non-physical energy forms.

Like I said, I do not want to be on constant duty. When something comes to me or I become aware of a presence, if I am busy or feel that the presence is dodgy, I consciously block it. I think that this is due to experience and the fact that I have worked, without a break, in a psychic/mediumistic capacity for more than 30 years. Not many consultants/readers can say that. It is emotionally and spiritually draining and most psychics don’t feel able to continue year in, year out. Also, people mostly don’t tend to consult with a psychic when their life is hunky dory — only when they’re sad, angry, lost, stuck, defeated, anxious, fearful, etc, etc — which means that you are consistently tuning in to vibrational fields that are not in a good place. Late last year I experienced major burnout, which led to physical illness. I hated the work for a while and the thought of continuing made me feel sick. In a post-pandemic world, clients had increasingly been coming to me with questionable attitudes and darker and darker issues. If I was going to keep working in this way (it actually provides my income, it isn’t a hobby), I had to make some drastic changes. There were things I was no longer willing to tolerate. Certain people I was not going to work with again, ever. And certain areas I refused to delve into. 

I suppose it is fair to say that my approach to my work is pragmatic. 

I harbour no illusions or see myself as special or different. Interesting things do happen, spontaneously or randomly, such as a sudden sighting of someone who is no longer in this world (just passing along or through), or a voice suddenly making a statement in my ear. In the past, there were nights when energies made themselves known when I was trying to sleep, either visually or verbally… and I would assertively instruct them to do one. Let’s face it, if the living pulled the same stunt late at night or in the early hours, we’d be livid! The message was and still is: “Leanne is out of the office at the moment. She’ll be happy to take your call during working hours.”